China’s tech news in October 2022: The country’s semiconductor and advanced microchip pressures, the changing face of China’s cryptocurrency space and its regulation, ByteDance’s music streaming move, and more.
2022 China Retail Digitalization Whitepaper / McKinsey & Co
- China: Henan province, home of world’s largest iPhone manufacturing compound, sets the metaverse as its next central industry, with sights on a possible $14BN industry by 2025
- China: Alipay mobile payment giant cut from Shanghai high-tech company listing over failure to meet gov’t-set R&D spending requirements, likely losing certain tax benefits in the process
- UK Business Secretary restricts access that Chinese state owners of Electricity North West have to UK power grid details, seeing 35pc China stake as national security risk
- US gov’t publishes heavily-expanded export controls, including cuts to China’s access to some semiconductor chips made anywhere in the world with US tools
- China: Chip supplier flags concerns over supply to sanctioned Huawei – “Supposedly owned by the Shenzhen government, Shenzen Pengxin Micro has a former Huawei executive as its CEO.”
China: Fintech, Cryptocurrencies & CBDC
- China: 12 months on from ban, regulators shut 13 crypto-trading apps, 23 crypto media sites, 440 online promoter accounts, 2 bank accounts offering crypto over-the-counter transactions, and more
- China: Sewingtech raises more than $1.39M in angel funding with robotics-driven automation in garment production
- “Beijing’s move to banish cryptocurrency trading and mining…seemed poised to snuff out the entire domestic industry…Instead, what’s emerged is a mix of companies that hew to the Communist Party agenda…”
- China: “Computer-generated avatars are considered a safer option by companies as Beijing cracks down on human celebrities deemed politically outspoken or with questionable morals.”
- China’s Oppo, world’s 4th-largest smartphone firm, loses legal case brought by Nokia over patents in Germany, resulting in Oppo smartphone sales ban
- ByteDance, parent company of TikTok, enters talks with music labels to expand music streaming service into over a dozen markets, directly in competition with Spotify
Doing Business In China 2022 / Baker McKenzie (pdf download)
- National security-related ban likely forthcoming for China’s Huawei and ZTE on all new device sales in the US, alongside ban on surveillance equipment from 3 other Chinese firms
- China: Judicial blockchain platform has stored over 2.6BN items of evidence, an increase of 18% since May this year
- China: A dive into TikTok’s bid for livestream e-commerce dominance o’seas, building on huge mainland success of programs like TikTok Shop Partners. Will this translate to the US market ? @semafor takes a look.
- “…leaders of the world’s biggest trading bloc discussed ways to reduce their dependence on China for tech equipment and the raw minerals used to make items such as microchips, batteries and solar panels.”
- China, Russia & microchips: Since sanctions were imposed on Russia “…40% of chips imported from China have been defective, while the rate before March was just 2%, Kommersant reported…”
- China’s new Politburo through the lens of the ‘technocrat’ component, those coming from a background in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
- Satellites data: “…with China where they’re just simply not sharing information. And we cannot safely operate in space if a major space participant isn’t actively engaged and sharing information in a way that enhances safety for all.”
- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co suspends advanced silicon production for China’s Biren Technology, a graphics competitor to Nvidia and AMD, in order to ensure compliance with US regulations
Frontier influencers: the new face of China’s propaganda
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